Edward Gustav Eisenlohr art work and papers

A Guide to the Collection

Edward Gustav Eisenlohr was born in Ohio to a family of German immigrants. When he was two years old the family relocated to Dallas, where his father established Eisenlohr Drug Store. As a young boy living in Dallas, E. G. Eisenlohr showed a strong aptitude in art, a trait which continued into his adult life. He was instrumental in establishing the Dallas Art Association, forerunner of the Dallas Museum of Arts, in 1903. Eisenlohr studied art with Texas artists Robert J. Onderdonk and Frank Reaugh and at the Art Students’ League summer school in Woodstock, New York. He later took additional art training in Germany before returning to Texas. Eisenlohr drew inspiration for art subjects from the Oak Cliff area of Dallas and his travels to New Mexico, the Texas Hill Country, and the western areas of his adopted state. The collection includes artwork, clippings, correspondence, photographs, published works, scrapbooks, and three-dimensional objects reflecting his German family history and his interest in the landscape of the American Southwest.

Edward Gustav Eisenlohr was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 9, 1872 to German immigrant parents, Rudolph and Emma [Hellner] Eisenlohr. Eisenlohr’s grandfather, Gustav W. Eisenlohr, had fled Germany in 1850 due to his participation in the Revolutions of 1848 and settled in the newly established Texas community called New Braunfels, where he became pastor of the First Protestant church. In 1851, the Eisenlohr family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio; soon after the Civil Wa, the young Rudolph Eisenlohr was sent to Karlsruhe, Germany to study pharmacology. There he met his future wife, Emma, who studied as an artist. They were married in September, 1879. The young groom returned to Cincinnati with his wife where he established an apothecary business; their son, Edward Gustav, was born on November 9, 1872. After the Panic of 1873, Rudolph sold his business and moved the family to Dallas, where he decided to reestablish his apothecary business, taking advantage of the population growth brought on by the arrival of two railroads that intersected in the city. In 1874 Rudolph purchased the lot at the corner of Main and Field streets in downtown Dallas and, two years later, he constructed a two-story building that housed the Eisenlohr Drug Store on the first floor and the family living quarters on the second. According to a 1935 article in the Dallas Morning News [“Christmas of ’74 Featured by First Yule Tree in City,” Oct. 1, 1935], on December 25, 1874, the Eisenlohr family reflected its German heritage by displaying the first Christmas tree in Dallas, complete with candles and tinsel. Emma Eisenlohr emphasized the important of art, music, and literature to both her young children - Edward [now four years old], and his little sister, Valerie [called “Wally”]. She hung one of her landscape paintings that was reminiscent of her art training in Germany in the family home. From a young age, Eisenlohr was influenced by his mother’s interest in art.

In the 1880s, Eisenlohr traveled with his family to New Braunfels, Cincinnati, and Karlsruhe, Germany and later began writing children’s books about his travel adventures. At the age of 14, he entered a drawing of the map of Texas in the art competition section of the newly established State Fair of Texas and won ten dollars. Wanting their son to have a proper education, the Eisenlohr family traveled to Europe so Edward could study in Switzerland. On their way, the family visited art galleries and museums and attended concerts. On October 1, 1887, Edward enrolled at The Concordia in Zurich where he took freehand drawing classes that included the study of landscape subjects. At the end of the academic year in 1889, Edward returned to his family home, located in now what is referred to as the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, and started work as a teller at the American Exchange National Bank. Again influenced by his mother, Edward set aside an art fund so he could continue with his art studies.

Eisenlohr continued his art studies in Dallas with two prominent Texas artists – Robert J. Onderdonk and Frank Reaugh. In 1892, Eisenlohr began a four-year study with Onderdonk, who had relocated from San Antonio to Dallas for a brief period before returning to San Antonio. Reaugh moved into the Oak Cliff area in 1890 where he set up his painting studio called “El Sibil.” Reaugh was known for taking students on sketching trips to West Texas and, in 1911, Eisenlohr joined Reaugh’s Trans-Llano Sketching Expedition. It was while studying with Reaugh that Eisenlohr began drawing with pastels. In 1903, both Eisenlohr and Reaugh were instrumental in the establishment of the Dallas Art Association – Reaugh assembled the exhibitions and Eisenlohr served as the art critic. Onderdonk and Reaugh introduced Eisenlohr to potential art patrons who were interested in his work and supported his professional career. In 1903, Eisenlohr, Reaugh, and Onderdonk were represented in the First Annual Exhibition of the Dallas Art Association at the Carnegie Library in downtown Dallas. Eisenlohr also exhibited his work at the State Fair of Texas and the private art gallery owned by Mrs. W. L. Crawford, located on Ross Avenue in Dallas.

Eisenlohr’s art career began to flourish in the early 1900s. In 1907, Eisenlohr took a leave-of-absence from the bank to tour art galleries in the northeast. While on tour, he was notified that one of his landscape paintings [untitled] was accepted in the Fourteenth Annual Exhibition of American Art at the Cincinnati Museum of Art. Eisenlohr resigned from his job at the bank in order to become a full-time artist. Before leaving for additional study in Europe, Eisenlohr studied with Birge Harrison at the Art Students’ League Summer School in Woodstock, New York. Once in Europe, he made study sketches of street scenes and local architecture in Belgium and Holland and visited museums in Paris to view work by Picasso, Cézanne, and Matisse. He returned to Karlsruhe, Germany where he enrolled at the State Academy of Fine Arts for the 1907 – 1908 academic year. There he studied with German Impressionist artists including Gustave Schoenleber, Hans Thoma, and Wilhelm Truebner. In April 1909, Eisenlohr displayed his European drawings at the First Annual Exhibition of the Work of Dallas Painters sponsored by the Dallas Art Association at the Fair Park Art Gallery. Over the next several years his work was shown in the following art institutions and organizations: American Water Color Society, Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Gallery, Museum of Modern Art [New York], National Academy of Design, New York Water Color Club, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Society of Western Artists, and the Washington Water Color Society. In 1915, he was elected to membership into the Salmagundi Club, a prestigious artists’ society based in New York City.

In 1916, Eisenlohr turned his attention to the art scene that was developing in the Taos and Santa Fe areas of New Mexico and where he became acquainted with other artists, including Ernest L. Blumenschien, Fremont Ellis, and Albert Lorey Groll. For the next several years he rented a studio room in an old adobe home on San Francisco Street in Santa Fe, where he lived a few months each year. Influenced by the strong light on the rugged landscape, his work became more impressionistic in style and with a lighter color palette. He also used lithography as a medium to capture historic and everyday scenes in the quaint and picturesque Santa Fe community. Both his Texas and New Mexico works were highly successful with Dallas art enthusiasts. His painting The Sentinel of Box Canyon was purchased in 1923 by the Dallas Art Association and, in 1926, some of his New Mexico work was included in his one-man show at the Highland Park Community Center in Dallas. Eisenlohr also participated in the Texas Wildflowers Competitive Exhibitions in San Antonio in the late 1920s. His first exhibition of New Mexico and Texas landscape paintings occurred in 1932 at the Dallas Public Art Gallery.

Eisenlohr’s work continued to be accepted into major exhibitions throughout the country during the 1930s when at the same time a younger group of artists, the Texas Regionalists, were beginning to emerge in the Dallas art scene. Though older than the members of this new group, he participated in their Lone Star Printmakers organization from 1938 – 1942. His work was also exhibited in international venues including the Paris [France] International Exhibition [1932] and the Venice Biennial [1940]. The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts honored Eisenlohr in 1950 with a one-man show and, two years later, a bronze bust of Eisenlohr by fellow Texas artist Allie Victoria Tennant was donated by his friends to the museum in appreciation of his support of the Dallas Art Association during its early years. Eisenlohr died on June 6, 1961, in Dallas. His lifelong commitment to the arts in Dallas was honored a few days after his death by the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts with the exhibition, The E. G. Eisenlohr Memorial Exhibition [June 11–July 9, 1961].

The Eisenlohr collection consists of fifteen matted works of art on paper, one sketchbook, and archival materials that include clippings, correspondence, photographs, published works, scrapbooks, and one table-top painting easel. The matted works on paper consist of eleven lithographs, three pencil self-portraits, and one pencil sketch by fellow artist Ruth John Sanders.

This is one of the visual art collections in Bywaters Special Collections that concentrate on the art of Texas and the Southwest. Related materials are located in the Jerry Bywaters Collection on Art of the Southwest in Bywaters Special Collections of the Hamon Arts Library of Southern Methodist University.

The Edward G. Eisenlohr papers and artwork were donated to Bywaters Special Collections in 1991 by his niece, Gertrude Helme, in 2001 by fellow artist friend, Mrs. Ruth Tenison Hogg Cox; and in 2011 by family members, Dr. and Mrs. [Martha] John Eisenlohr

The Eisenlohr papers were received in no discernible order. During processing, the sketchbooks and scrapbooks were placed in individual flat archival boxes. The works on paper were conserved by a paper conservator, matted in archival mats, and housed in museum cases. The archival material was divided into separate archival files for clippings, correspondence, documents, publicity, and published works. The scrapbooks were digitized for preservation and research purposes; the scanned images are available for viewing in Bywaters Special Collections

Series 1:Artwork (circa 1800s, 1930s – 1950s, undated)

The artwork housed in the museum case consists of fourteen matted works of art by Edward G. Eisenlohr, including eleven lithographs and three pencil sketches, and one pencil sketch is by fellow artist, Ruth John Sanders. The pencil sketches by Eisenlohr are self-portraits and the lithographs by the artist are of scenes in and around Dallas, Texas, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The pencil sketch by Ruth John Sanders is an amusing image of a donkey with a handwritten note by Sanders at the bottom of the image. Flat Box 1 contains a sketchbook kept by Eisenlohr, entitled Encyclopadie des Landwirthschaft [Encyclopedia of Agriculture]. The first section of the sketchbook contains notes regarding agriculture, most likely made by Eisenlohr during his early school years in Europe. The middle section of the sketchbook includes Eisenlohr’s sketches of the tale of Max and Moritz, a story of pranks committed by two young boys in Germany. Max and Moritz was first published in 1865 and written and illustrated by Wilhelm Busch. Flat Box 2 contains two prints of German towns, most likely collected by Eisenlohr while studying art in Germany, and date probably to the 1800s. The folder contains eight Christmas cards with reproductions of Eisenlohr’s prints made in the 1930s.

Case

“Edward G. Eisenlohr”

Size A museum case: matted size 20” x 16” or 16” x 20”:

Case

File

1

First lithograph by Eisenlohr (Untitled)

EGE.91.1

Lithograph, 1930

2

Self-portrait of the artist (large)

EGE.91.2

Pencil on paper, 1945

3

Self-portrait of the artist (small)

EGE.91.3

Pencil on paper, undated

4

Self-portrait of the artist on an envelope

EGE.91.4

Pencil on paper, circa 1951

5

Sketch of a donkey by Ruth John Sanders

EGE.91.5

Pencil on paper, undated

6

Passing of the Storm

EGE.91.6

Lithograph, circa 1933

7

Five Mile Creek

EGE.91.7

Lithograph, 1933

8

Durham's Farm

EGE.91.8

Lithograph, 1933

9

Rural Church

EGE.91.9

Lithograph 1933

10

The Cathedral, Santa Fe

EGE.91.10

Lithograph, circa 1937

11

The River at Santa Fe

EGE.91.11

Lithograph, 1937

12

New Mexican Corral, Santa Fe

EGE.91.12

Lithograph, undated

13

Hillside Adobes, Santa Fe

EGE.91.13

Lithograph, circa 1940

14

House by the Road

EGE.91.14

Lithograph, circa 1933

15

Rural Homes

EGE.91.15

Lithograph, undated

Box

File

Flat Box 1

Encyclopadie des Landwirthschaft (sketchbook written and illustrated by Eisenlohr), undated

Series 2:Clippings (1920s)

The clipping files contain twelve folders from various newspapers documenting Eisenlohr’s exhibitions and art career in Dallas during the 1920s. The envelopes containing the original clippings were kept for historical information due to handwritten notes written on each envelope. Copies were made of the original clippings for preservation and research purposes.

Series 5:Published Works (1900s – 1920s, 1980s, undated)

The published works series contain three exhibition catalogues and three magazines. The illustration on the front cover of the October 1913 issue of Holland’s magazine is by E. G. Eisenlohr. The exhibition catalogues relate to the artist’s career, beginning in the 1920s.

Box

Folder

1

15

Published Works - undated - The Highland Park Society of Arts Presents Edward G. Eisenlohr in an Exhibition of Paintings Loaned by Dallas Patrons and from his Studio, February 27th to March 15th

Series 6:Scrapbooks (1900s – 1950s)

The three scrapbooks contain photographs, newspaper clippings, and cards with reproduction images of work by Eisenlohr. The Scrapbook entitled Mainly Concerning Myself chronicles the life and art career of E. G. Eisenlohr, mainly with photographs of the artist and his work and newspaper clippings.

Box

Folder

Flat Box 5

Scrapbooks - 1900s - 1950s - Mainly Concerning Myself, 1911- 1950

Box

Folder

Flat Box 6

Scrapbooks - 1940s – Reproduction of print images made by Eisenlohr used as Christmas cards

Box

Folder

Flat Box 7

Scrapbooks - 1950s - Scrapbook and guest sign-in book from the presentation at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts of the Eisenlohr bust by Allie Victoria Tennant to the museum on May 18, 1952.